Tutankhamen's taste for white wine revealed

The boy king Tutankhamen had a taste for white wine. According to New Scientist magazine, a chemical analysis of residue in some of the jars in Tutankhamen's tomb revealed six of them contained tartaric acid, a chemical characteristic of grapes.

However, only one of the jars also contained syringic acid, found in the skin of red grapes - it is the skin that gives red wine its colour.

The discovery surprised archaeologists because their earliest evidence of white wine in Egypt dates to 3AD. The find suggests that Egyptians were enjoying white wine almost 2,000 years before.

Sign up for the Guardian Today

Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.